by DESK | Jul 26, 2024 | Drop-in Center, Food Pantry, Volunteering
This spring, five of our interns graduated from their bachelors and graduate programs!
Roman DaRosa and Antonio Diaz joined DESK this year as Quality Assurance and Analyst Interns, assisting with the backend administrative operations of our weekly Olive Street Pantry program, Evening Meals program, and the Drop-in & Resource Center. Both graduated from the University of Bridgeport’s Data Analytics program. As part of their work, QA interns play a critical role in data collection and analysis of DESK’s program metrics. They are also responsible for reviewing and compiling program measurement tools, impact assessments, and visualizations of analytic projects.
Roman describes his experiences: “If I were to sum up my experience in two words, it would be eye-opening. Just having the opportunity to witness firsthand the services that DESK provides and how passionate and diligent staff and volunteers work was fulfilling to me.” Antonio agrees: “As an intern, I got to work with data sets both in the sense of data visualization and understanding, but with quality assurance as well. This hands-on experience gave me a broad sense of the practicality of the data field and empowered me with valuable skills.”
Meanwhile, Victoria “Tori” Wallace and Mellody Massaquoi, both of whom graduated with BSW’s from Southern Connecticut State University’s Social Work program this spring, got a chance to work directly with our clients in the Drop-in & Resource Center. And we’re also excited to announce that one of our past interns, Shannon Ryan, who graduated with their BSW in 2023, completed the work for their MSW this spring! At DESK, we see this program as a critical training ground for future social work professionals, applying hands-on skills that will serve them in any social or human services field. We can’t wait to see where these burgeoning professionals go from here!
Finally, three special shout-outs:
- Josh Torres, who completed his internship with DESK this past year, received a Certificate of Achievement marking exceptional social work performance, en route to completing his BSW.
- One of our Board members, the Rev. Dr. Kelcy G.L. Steele of Varick Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church received his PhD in Strategic Leadership from Regent University this spring.
- DESK’s (recently promoted) Associate Director of Client Engagement & Quality Assurance, Evan Serio, received their MSW at Southern Connecticut State University’s Social Work program.
Congratulations to all of this year’s incredible graduates and awardees! We’re so proud of all you’ve each accomplished!
Interested in interning at DESK? Please have your student advisor contact us at (203) 624-6426 or email info@deskct.org, for more information.
by Steve Werlin | Jul 11, 2024 | Advocacy, Homelessness, In the News
I’ve included below two articles on the Grants Pass decision, as well as an opinion piece from Sarah Fox, executive director at Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. To add to these perspectives, I’ll note that this ruling is a sad commentary on where we are as a nation. This court’s decision absolves the government (at all levels) from their responsibility to ensure basic needs for those residing within our borders, while also promoting an enforcement approach over a results-driven and solutions-oriented strategy of compassion. Empowering municipalities to sweep people away from wherever those municipalities so choose is not merely counterproductive: it puts people at even greater risk of adverse, even deadly, health outcomes, while disconnecting them from essential services and therefore reducing the likelihood of getting them successfully housed. Like the War on Drugs, encampment clearing is a demonstrably failed policy that exacerbates the public health crisis.
What we’re facing in Connecticut
CT advocates decry barriers for unhoused with health needs: ‘A life and death public health crisis’ . . .
By: Cris Villalonga- Vivoni, Staff Writer – New Haven Register
Connecticut’s unhoused population continues to rise as affordable housing options decrease, an already difficult situation exacerbated for people with medical needs that add challenges to finding housing, officials said.
“We are seeing an increase in homelessness not only in New Haven but across the state,” said Margaret LeFever, senior manager of the coordinated access network, or CAN, at the United Way of Greater New Haven. “We desperately need more deeply affordable housing to keep people in housing and be able to house those experiencing homelessness as quickly as possible. It is a life and death public health crisis.”
National studies have found that homelessness is associated with higher prevalence of chronic conditions, mental illness and substance use disorder. Being unhoused while also living with a complex medical condition, such as a chronic illness, heightens their risk of death if they remain homeless. Read more . . .
Connecticut after Grants Pass v. Johnson
What can Connecticut expect after the Supreme Court’s decision on evicting homeless encampments?
By Mark Zaretsky, Staff Writer – New Haven Register
A U.S. Supreme Court decision that found cities have broad power to evict people from encampments and confiscate their property is unlikely to affect life for unhoused people in Connecticut, local advocates and government officials across the state said.
But the June 28 ruling — which affects more than 650,000 people experiencing homelessness, according to the federal government — represents a new low for a government that should be doing everything it can to help people who need it, not criminalize them for being poor or mentally ill, several advocates said.
“It really gets to me that they’re treating homelessness as a crime rather than a condition,” said the Rev. Sara Smith, who has spent 15 years fighting homelessness in Bridgeport.
The controversial ruling overturned a California-based appeals court’s previous ruling in a case involving Grants Pass, a city of 39,000 in southwest Oregon that has just one homeless shelter. It cleared the way for cities to enforce bans on unhoused people sleeping outside in public places. Read more . . .
Opinion: Arresting people is not the solution to homelessness
By Sarah Fox, Chief Executive Officer, Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness
The solution to hunger is food, and the solution to homelessness is homes. The solution is emphatically not arresting people who sleep outside when they have nowhere else to go.
The June 30 Supreme Court decision, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, says that people who are unhoused can be arrested for resting outside, pushing efforts to solve homelessness a giant step back.
The decision will have nationwide impact by giving cities and states the right to punish people for sleeping outdoors. We know that this will harm unhoused community members and subject people to violence, destruction of personal property, and adverse health outcomes, in addition to saddling them with unneeded fines.
For years, Connecticut has been at the forefront in solving homelessness. Through a multitude of governors and presidential administrations, the Nutmeg State has made incredible strides to find permanent housing for all its residents. Read more . . .
